TEAM
The color orange is a symbol of optimism and joie de vivre.
It signals openness and sociability. Orange is the color of activity, the color of the children and of all who feel young and vital. It asks us to let go and live for the moment. Orange promotes confidence and stands for communication, the desire for unity and for creativity!
This is our Tango. … Orange!
ILIAS OIKONOMOU
Ilias Oikonomou discovered the Argentine Tango in 1995. He has studied Tango since then with such notable and well-known teachers as Gustavo Naveira, Gabriel and Natalia, Patricia Segovia, Chicho Frumboli, Julio Balmaceda and Osvaldo Zotto. Due to their influence and thanks to his musical and artistic background, Ilias developed his very personal and modern style of dancing and interpreting the Argentine Tango.
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Certified Dance Pedagogue / Excercise Pedagogue of the terramedus® Academy for Health.
Very significant in that process was the time Ilias spent with the famous tango teacher and founder of Tangodiscovery, Mauricio Castro. The attendance of several of his intensive seminaries in Buenos Aires, Arnheim, Rotterdam, Bremen and Hamburg helped him to discover the philosophy of the Tango Nuevo for himself and to redefine his style of teaching Tango by integrating the ideas of TangoDiscovery.
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In addition to teaching Tango Ilias was co-founder of the Tango-Ensemble “Tangoground” and therefore between 1999 and 2002 to be seen on many tango shows all over Europe. He was also invited to perform and participate at several Tango festivals, like the Mini-Tango Festival in Malmö, Sweden (2002), the Greece Tango Festival (2003) and the Tangodiscovery Festival in Wuppertal (2004).
Acting, Dancing and doing Pantomime have been projects Ilias constantly worked on beside his passion for the Argentine Tango. From 1995 until 2000 e.g. he was a member of the theatre company Theatricon e.V. in Hamburg and he attended several workshops which focused on Dance Theatre, Body Control and Improvisation.
Besides dancing and teaching Tango Ilias focused on the advancement of his musical skills. As a Percussionist he worked with several ensembles like “Madrucada batucada”, the “Rembetico Trio” and the “Ensemble Macam”. Since 2006 he enriches the group “Mediterra“.
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Based on this experience, Ilias developed an innovative way of teaching tango which works out very well especially with the modern style of tango- and non-tango music. His main focus is to achieve perfect harmony between the dance partners and the music and the natural aesthetics of body language.
While he has been teaching with his team at the “Hochschulsport” at Hamburg University as well as various cultural centers in Hamburg since 2000, he has also organized several Argentine Tango projects at schools in Germany and Switzerland, as his teaching method is also particularly suitable for teaching children.
As a member of the “Tango Discovery Team Europe”, since 2005 he has regularly given seminars in Greece (e.g. Volos, Xanthi, Trikala), where he initiated the tango group “TangOlympo” in Katerini and “Tango Argentino Santorini” in 2009 on Santorini.
As the highlight of all this work and experience in 2009 the idea for “Tango Orange” was born. Together with his dance partner, Laura Toledo, he wants to open up the Argentine Tango in its evolution as a different form of communication to a broader public.
Since the beginning of 2011 Ilias Oikonomou is using his teaching method also therapeutically: American neuroscientists have shown that dance, especially tango supports the activation of certain brain areas – through the coordination of the body and the synchronization with both the dance partners and the music. In cooperation with Theravitalis Alsterdorf Ilias Oikonomou is teaching tango to Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis patients to give them back to a certain extent quality of life. Since 2015, Ilias and his Tango Orange Team have also appeared in various countries around the world to host workshops and perform on dance shows.
Places he visited include Caracas Venezuela (2015), Odense Denmark (2016), Mexico City (2016), Sacramento, CA (2016), Vietnam (2017), California and Oregon (2017).
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In April 2018 workshops in South Africa, Stellenbosch and St. Pietermarizburg.
LEA WAYAND
Lea discovered the Argentinean Tango in october 2010 during her studies at the university in Hamburg. With this step she fullfilled herself a wish she had for many years.
From the first lesson on Tango became an important part of her life with Ilias and Lauras philosophy and way of teaching it. It played a big role in balancing the daily life of being a student an later on of being an aprenticer of nursery in the hospital. It brought joy, relaxation and was a great outlet for creativity. Later on while travelling she collected more and more experiences in Tango. She gave workshops with Ilias in Venezuela (2016) and later on in California and Oregon (2017). Since then she is assisting regularly in Tango Orange.
BARBARA SCHULTZ
Barbara Schultz discovered her passion for dance very early on. At the age of 16 she was German champion in Wolfgang Opitz's Latin American formation. Several runners-up in the European and World Championships followed.
As a physiotherapist, she trained in various ways of expressing dance in the years that followed. Courses in oriental and African dance and dance therapy complemented her training.
For them, the language of dance is the focus. She was inspired by dance innovators Mary Wigman, Laban and Pina Bausch, among others.
In 1998 she discovered the Tango Argentino for herself. Esther and Mingo Pugliese and most recently Mauricio Castro were her teachers.
In the method of her teachers Ilias Oikonomou and Laura Toledo from Tango Orange, from whom she has been intensively trained since 2009, she saw the possibility of enabling everyone to dance.
In 2011, together with Ilias Oikonomou, she developed a concept to implement this teaching method for people with disabilities.
Her extensive work as a lecturer in neurology and ergonomics at curative educational institutions and her many years of experience as a Bobath therapist formed the basis for this concept.
Her further training in the Franklin method, in sensory integration treatment, manual therapy, osteopathy, the Feldenkrais method, spiral dynamics and eutony education served to expand the dance / medical concept.
For Barbara Schultz, tango is a living language: it expresses what moves people inwardly and urges them to communicate. The instrument of expression is the human body, the natural movements of which form the material of dance. For the dance expression, the individual physical mobility of the body is decisive.
LUCAS FILIPO VOGES
For Lucas, the experience of dancing is always a welcome change and a way to get away from the stress of everyday life. Tango, which he got to know in 2011 at Tango Orange, convinced him.
Not only the freedom, but also the logic of the dance, which follows the natural movements and thus holistically benefits the body, were reasons for him to learn to love tango.
To be able to live out his creativity and to always discover something new is an experience for Lucas that he would not want to miss. Teaching, which he has already enjoyed in other contexts, is also a welcome and complementary activity for him.
The diversity of dance and music remain a main component of his dancing, along with his affinity for calm bass-heavy sounds. At our milongas Lucas regularly takes care of the music selection and convinces with a versatile choice and alternating pieces from classical to modern, from Tango to Non-Tango.
LEA SIEMANN
Lea Siemann dances the argentine tango since 2005. In her training she was mostly influenced by Tangoorange besides workshops and private lessons with Aris Negrosol and the Founder of the Tangodiscovery method Mauricio Castro.
She also gained experience with different teachers in Buenos Aires.In addition to her job as assistence trainer at Tangoorange she worked at numerous tango projects. Among other things she worked with blind and visually impaired people and tought children and adolecents in special needs, integrated and vocational schools.
As educational scientist and systemic therapist Lea also investigates the tango from different perspectives: She wrote her diploma thesis on “Tango dancing as a method for learning to think ‘education’” and developed concepts for learning about and experiencing systemic thinking "bodily" with the aid of tango dancing. There have been numerous workshops with the working title "Tango in conversation", for example in the HISW in Hamburg, Dogument, self-awareness training in the Diakonie, at a Coaching Symposium in Oldenburg and as team-event at aperto plenum in Berlin.
ANETTE MARTINY
Annette discovered the Argentine Tango for herself in 2005 and was directly impressed by the innovative way of teaching by Mauricio Castro, founder of Tango discovery, and his Hamburg team.
In Ilias & Laura she found two teachers who pay a lot of attention to music interpretation, what for her as a musicologist is fundamental. In Tango – especially in the teaching method of Tango Orange – she is fascinated by the subtlety of communication between the dancing partners, the infinite possibilities of improvisation and the idea of a dance based on natural and efficient movement.
Annette is Certified Rolfer™ and has been working as a tango teacher at Tango Orange since 2010. Apart from her professional background as a Rolfer she contributes her long-time experience in pilates and power yoga to her dance and her teaching.
LAURA TOLEDO
Laura Toledo from Buenos Aires was teaching at Tango Orange to 2021.
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From the beginning, in 2009 she was part of "Tango Orange" in order to make Argentine Tango in its evolution as another form of communication accessible to a wider public.
